Hemivariational Inequalities with a general growth condition: Existence and Approximation (Q4435656)

The authors establish both an existence and an approximation result for a general class of hemivariational inequalities that contain a potential with a superquadratic growth. First, by applying refined methods in the nonsmooth critical point theory in the sense of Clarke, the authors obtain the existence of nontrivial solutions. Next, a convergence result for Galerkin type approximation is established in the paper. One of the main novelties of this work is that Assumption (H4) improves the celebrated growth condition of \textit{A. Ambrosetti} and \textit{P. H. Rabinowitz} [J. Funct. Anal. 14, 349-381 (1973; Zbl 0273.49063)]. The approach allows the authors to cover in a unifying way the superlinear and sublinear situations. Significant classes of problems described by the abstract results are also illustrated in the present paper.